Nadine Ruth Mix or Ruth Jane Mix (July 13, 1912 – September 21, 1977) was an

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

Early years

Mix was born in

Dewey, Oklahoma Dewey is a city in Washington County, Oklahoma, United States. Founded by Jacob A. Bartles in 1899, the town was named for Admiral George Dewey. It was incorporated December 8, 1905.May, John D. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. "Dewe ...

, to

Tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

and Olive Stokes Mix. She had a half-sister, Thomasina Mix. After they divorced, when Mix was 15, her mother asked a Los Angeles court to order that the girl's allowance be increased from $50 per month to $1,500 per month. The judge denied the request until someone was appointed guardian of her estate and said she would have to become a "boarding pupil" rather than a "day school pupil". By January 1929, her monthly allowance had been increased to $225, but her spending led a judge to chastise her when a debt-collection agency attached an allowance check after she ran up a $1,000 hotel bill in New York. The judge admonished her to "try to be more modest about her ways of living." The monthly allocation ended via another court ruling in 1930 after she married.

Career

Mix started her acting career following in her father's footsteps. In the mid-1920s she starred in several

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

s. She made a total of twelve westerns, particularly ''

The Tonto Kid ''The Tonto Kid'' is a 1935 American Western film directed by Harry L. Fraser. Cast *Rex Bell as "Skeets" Slawson aka The Tonto Kid *Ruth Mix as Nancy Cahill *Buzz Barton as Wesley Fritch *Theodore Lorch as Lawyer Sam Creech * Joseph W. Gira ...

'', ''

Fighting Pioneers ''Fighting Pioneers'' is a 1935 American Western film directed by Harry L. Fraser and written by Harry L. Fraser and Charles E. Roberts. The film stars Rex Bell, Ruth Mix, Buzz Barton, Stanley Blystone, Earl Dwire and Chuck Morrison. The film wa ...

'', ''

Saddle Aces ''Saddle Aces'' is a 1935 American Western film written and directed by Harry L. Fraser. The film stars Rex Bell, Ruth Mix, Buzz Barton, Stanley Blystone, Earl Dwire and John Elliott. The film was released on June 2, 1935, by Resolute Pictures ...

'' and ''

Gunfire A gunshot is a single discharge of a gun, typically a man-portable firearm, producing a visible flash, a powerful and loud shockwave and often chemical gunshot residue. The term can also refer to a ballistic wound caused by such a discharge ...

'', all made in 1935. In 1936 she starred in three

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

serials, ''

The Black Coin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', '' The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand'', and ''

Custer's Last Stand The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nort ...

''. She played the female lead in a few B-westerns, starring alongside Wally Walls and

Hoot Gibson Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitione ...

. Mix retired from acting, becoming a roping artist and trick rider for her father's

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

and

wild west show Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of c ...

. In 1929, she performed in vaudeville, performing "in a novelty offering including singing and dancing" and heading a Rodeo Revue show. The Rodeo Revue had a cast of 35, featuring comedian Jed Dooley and including Toby Tobias and his orchestra and an eight-woman ballet group in addition to Mix and her horse, Lindy. Her father's show went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...

by the end of the 1930s, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1939, she was part of the Wild West Show at the New York World's Fair, and in 1941 she, along with Howard Cragg and B. H. Jones, headed a rodeo show that appeared at fairs.

Personal life

On June 9, 1930, Mix married actor

Douglas Gilmore Douglas Gilmore (June 25, 1903 – July 26, 1950) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films and theater productions. The University of Washington has a photograph of him from 1927. Filmography *''His Buddy's Wife'' (1925), his film d ...

in Yuma, Arizona. They separated in July 1931, with Mix planning to go to court to seek an annulment. The annulment was granted in July 1932, to become effective automatically 90 days later. Mix and Harry Knight, a "champion Canadian bronco buster" eloped to Reno, Nevada, and were married on June 5, 1935.

Death

On September 21, 1977, Mix died in Corpus Christi, Texas, aged 65. Her name then was Ruth Hill, and she had lived in Corpus Christi since 1954.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
B-Western Ladies, Ruth Mix
People from Dewey, Oklahoma Actresses from Oklahoma American silent film actresses American film actresses 1912 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American actresses Vaudeville performers {{US-film-actor-1910s-stub